Movie News

REVIEW: Godzilla

Let’s start with what’s great about this latest version of “Godzilla”, which follows the 1954 classic and the Roland Emmerich 1998 re-boot. Godzilla looks fantastic after all these years, though he’s packed on a few . He has total cred. Also great: for once, it’s not New York and L.A. facing apocalypse now. Instead it’s Honolulu, Vegas and San Francisco. The CGI is awesome. The destruction scenes easily live up to expectations. Bryan Cranston and a blink-or-you’ll-miss-her Juliette Binoche are the most impressive amongst the human co-stars. It’s all downhill once they leave.

O.K. Here’s what didn’t work. You have to wait an hour (!!!) for Godzilla to appear. Instead , we have these two Cloverfield-like monsters on the move, driven by sex and fed by radiation, sucking the power from everything in their path. Aaron Taylor-Johnson (“Kick-Ass”) is weak compared to Cranston (who plays his dad). Ditto the usually impressive in much smaller films Elizabeth Olsen. At least Olsen (yes, the younger sister of the mega-rich Olsen twins) finally gets her Hollywood pay day.

The Cloverfield-monster fights get boring and even B-movie-ish. The destruction: never so. Make destruction- not war!!!! Also , it’s a hokey ending , though clearly paving the way for a sequel and maybe a franchise. And enough with the 3-D already!!!! Totally superfluous.